Rauf Aregbesola, Nigeria’s interior minister and ex-governor of Osun State, boycotted Saturday’s governorship election in the state.
The former governor who is at loggerheads with his successor, the incumbent governor, Gboyega Oyetola, did not vote at the governorship election on Saturday.
In Ifofin, Ilesha area of the state, where Aregbesola was expected to cast his vote, he was not sighted, a development residents said was unlike the minister who always arrived in his hometown on the eve of an election.
Voting has since concluded at the minister’s polling unit at Isare ward 8, Ilesha east, with APC winning with 164 votes, while the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) got 134.
Meanwhile, according to Premium Times, the minister has travelled to Germany.
Aregbesola has been at loggerheads with Gboyega Oyetola, governor of Osun, who is seeking re-election on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The minister had backed Moshood Adeoti, a former secretary to the state government (SSG), for the APC governorship ticket but Oyetola won the APC primary.
Aregbesola had subsequently described the primary as a “sham of an election” after his preferred candidate lost to Oyetola.
The APC in Osun currently has two factions — one loyal to Aregbesola while the other supports Oyetola.
The minister was also not present during the APC mega rally in Osun on Tuesday, which was attended by Bola Tinubu, the party’s presidential candidate, as well as governors and other party stakeholders.